QUEER PROM:
Predictably, Constance McMillen has been tormented by her peers at Itawamba Agricultural High School since the 18-year-old high school senior returned to school. Prom was cancelled after Constance requested permission to bring her girlfriend as her date and wear a tux, was denied, and subsequently the ACLU stepped in at which point the school just decided to cancel prom altogether, which is so passive-aggressive and irritating and a fighting technique traditionally employed by immature psycho ex-girlfriends. (sidenote: props to Constance for already having an outfit picked out, I defo did that shit last minute.)
The teenager said she reluctantly returned to school this week after deciding that prolonging her return would only make things worse.
“My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I’m still proud of who I am,” she told The Associated Press.
Sidenote, this is her Daddy. I am pretty sure you don’t want to mess with this guy! Also look at Constance’s cute girlfriend there all like “peace, y’all!”
Constance told the press: “It’s a small town in Mississippi, and it’s run by an older generation with money — most of them are more conservative.”
Meanwhile, in New Orleans, restaurant owner Sean Cummings has offered to transport students from Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.
Hey have you seen our queer prom gallery we’re creating because we want Constance to be in it? You should check it out… and also, you should submit if you took a same-sex date to prom! Be visible, be cute!
It’s real, girls do take girls to prom and it’s nothing people should be freaking out about!’ Also, the comments are interesting — did every lesbo bring a gay boy to prom? Perhaps.
Over at LezGetReal, fans are calling for Ellen to throw a prom for Constance: “Hey fans of Ellen, there’s a school in mississippi that has cancelled prom altogether rather than let a young lesbian student bring her girlfriend to the dance, I say let’s all ask Ellen to organize a prom in that town where students can bring whomever they want as their date!”
Constance was on CBS News this morning:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Would you like to contact any of the fine people in charge of this mess? Well, The Stranger has that all for ya — and a lot more. Their coverage of the event has been excellent. [Go tell The Stranger about our queer prom gallery, kids!]
Then shoot an email to these peeps:
Superintendent Teresa McNeece – tmcneece@itawamba.k12.ms.us
Principal Trae Wiygul – twiygul@itawamba.k12.ms.us
School Board Member Eddie Hood – a082315@allstate.com
School Board Member Jackie Nichols – jnichols@itawamba.k12.ms.us
School Board Member Harold Martin – hmartin@itawamba.k12.ms.us
School Board Member Clara Brown – cbrown@network-one.com
School Board Member Tony Wallace - twallace@nexband.com
60,000 people have joined the facbeook group “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend To Prom.” Be one of them!
SCHOOLING IN TEXAS:
The Texas State Board of Education is having a three-day conference assessing the state’s social studies curriculum. Texas is the nation’s second largest purchaser of public school textbooks so this decision is important. SO important that somehow they’ve invited a bunch of evangelical Christians to participate in this monumental decision!
But elsewhere in Texas, Houston’s mayor is turning the city into a gay hot-spot.
JOHNNY WEIR:
Stars on Ice doesn’t want Johnny Weir on their tour anymore ’cause he’s not “family friendly” enough. As we know, that means BECAUSE HE’S GAY. (@phb)
GENDER BENDING IN THE BATHROOM:
Standing Up Like a Man: “This brilliant invention, obviously thought up by a female genius who hates public toilets as much as I do, is basically a piece of surprisingly thin paper rolled up like an ice cream cone. The cones lie flat until you are ready to use them; a mere squeeze opens them up to their full potential.” (@salon)
GENDER PROGRESS:
Australia is the first to recognize “non-specified” gender. (@pinknewsuk)
CHAZ BONO:
Anderson Cooper talks to Chaz Bono about the year since his gender transition.
21 responses to “Lesbian Prom Panic: Classmates Blame Constance for Cancellation”
My god, where are the revolutionaries of today?? Why are the kids siding with the man? Shouldn’t they be trying to overthrow their school board oppressors? Shouldn’t it be all of us against the old people??
This is not my America.
It would only be a 15 or 16 hour drive for me to go to mississippi and hug my new hero, that’s reasonable right?
F you Stars on Ice. Probably not a coincidence that Smuckers is a sponsor- they also got a bad rating on the HRC buyers guide.
I almost didn’t click the article about peeing standing up because I’d heard about the product already (my straight BFF became obsessed with the idea when she saw an ad in my dyke mag), but I’m glad I did. Hilarious write-up. “This was a personal best for me in terms of speed. I was the Michael Phelps of public restroom pissing.”
The CBS interview is good. WOW is Constance southern.
And well-spoken. She’s taking the heat to set an example for students everywhere that they don’t have to take discrimination in silence. Glad to see so many people supporting her.
Constance McMillan, we should be friends. I’m pretty sure.
I tried emailing all of them, and it looks like they cancelled the board members’ emails, but I got through to the principal and superintendent. Have fun reading through your inbox!
hey constance – FUCK THE HATERS. high school is stupid and the people giving you a hard time now are the ones who’ll be pumping gas into your subaru sooner than you think. STAY STRONG, you’ve got more guts in your pinky fingernail than most of these assholes have in their entire bodies. WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK, BABE.
xo
bcw
Thanks for drawing attention to such an sad story!
I work at Stonewall Democrats, and we’re asking folks to sign a petition to their Members of Congress asking them to co-sponsor Rep. Jared Polis’Student Non-Discrimination Act, the very bill that would protect students like Constance.
Here’s a link to the petition:
http://www.change.org/actions/view/demand_all_proms_are_fair_support_the_student_non-discrimination_act
I hope everyone takes a minute to sign!
Well I knew a girl named Constance. And then in Senior year her brother died and 18,000 people showed up (of a town of barely 15,000, to pay their respects in a place that holds 2,000 Maximum. But we kept pouring in, there were no more chairs, so we stood. No more Standing room so we shouted. No more car parks, so we got out of our cars and we walked. And I cried, because this kid, this kid so far in front of me, had touched my life. And I’ll never forget him.
And to all this hullabaloo I say, I waited hours in line for a kid I hadn’t seen for years, and would never see again. BECAUSE IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. That’s all it comes down to often. The right thing to do. Hard as it may be. God Bless you Constance. We’re behind you 100%
wow, was a i writing my LJ entry or what? forgive the morbid/emo tone, my point still stands.
that mississippi accent just melted my little heart. <3 i really love her parents! srsly, big high fives to them for being so supportive and setting a perfect example.
stars on ice = dumbasses if they can’t wrap their stupid heads around how much $$ johnny weir could bring in.
i’m going to go read abt texas now! TEXAS!
Took a second to write to the superintendent. I think the thing that hits home the most for me is that my younger sister is gay and still in high school. I admire people like Constance and my sister for being able to live openly and honestly at such a young age. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t scared for my younger sister because of the fact she is out. She lives in a rural and conservative are much like Constance and because of that I try to protect her as much as I can. But things like this will always happen unless there are major changes made.
Wow, go New South Wales! I knew I lived here for a reason.
The ACLU Constance Facebook campaign is up over the 100,000 mark.
If only real world issues could be solved by Facebook campaigns.
I mean it got Betty White on SNL after all.
We had this issue in Canada back in 2002 and they ended up letting the guy (Marc Hall) and his BF go – and that was a Catholic school. So keep up the fight!
…how shameful is it that the school administration is practically condoning the bullying of Constance and her girlfriend (who, I think someone said is a sophomore at this school – dear lord, she has to go to this school for two more years!) and playing the “blame it on the lesbians” game.
BTW, where are we at with that Student Non-Discrimination Act, Congress?
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2522.html
Just another reason to hustle up…let alone all the other teens whose stories don’t make the news.
Constance, I’m so impressed.
“Do you ever wish you hadn’t asked?”
“No, I don’t.”
Rah! Good on you.
She ruined the prom by being selfish. Should have stayed under the radar. Better yet realize women are meant to be with men. Very satisfying and the parts all fit nicely! The Creator’s will.
Oh here we go.
If anyone is being selfish then it’s the schoolboard. It’s their bigoted attitudes that the rest of her senior year should be blaming, not her.
Oh and please, is that the best you can come up with “and the parts all fit nicely”?? With lines like that I should of just laughed you off. I take it you don’t believe in true love then? Anyway were all entitled to freewill, free speech etc, so thats my piece said too.
They see me trollin’, they hatin’…
I think this article heading should have read, “This just in, Bullshit is still wide spread.”
I can’t wait to be a final survivor in the zombie apocalypse so I can HANDLE BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE.
on a completely unrelated note… OMG NEW GENERIC COMMENT PICTURE IS EPIC.
The American Humanist Association took the school board up on their “private prom” challenge. They’re putting up $20K to give the students an LGBT inclusive prom.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9mrg8x
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